CHARLOTTE - "Janky" might not be a word most restaurant owners would use to describe their business.

But Jason Strotheide says the 83-year-old long-abandoned Charlotte gas station where he's built both The Whistlepig BBQ and a loyal weekend following is just that.

And it's loud, too.

Built in 1935, it sits on 2,200 square feet of property surrounded by a chain link fence right next to active railroad tracks on North Cochran Avenue in Charlotte. Until two years ago, the small building was empty.

When trains pass by, nearly everyone, customers and staff alike, has to yell to be heard. That’s often coupled with the sound of wood being cut just up the street at L.L. Johnson Lumber Co. and the constant traffic on Cochran Avenue.

“There’s a split on the tracks right here,” Strotheide said on a recent Friday morning, pointing off to the side of the property while he lifted a tray of roasting pork from an oven underneath a wood awning. “When those wheels hit that split, it’s just like a hammer. Boom, boom!”

The Whistlepig BBQ owner Jason Strotheide takes a call with assistance from his 13-year-old daughter Jillian on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte. Jason and his family work at the BBQ stand. Nick King/Lansing State Journal

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It was a few hours before The Whistlepig BBQ opened to customers, and Strotheide mixed up dressing with honey and Dijon mustard and coated chicken with a dry rub of jerk seasoning.

“The whole thing just kind of started off as this sort of lark,” he said.

Today the Whistlepig BBQ sells out a few hours before closing nearly every weekend it's open, April through October. Strotheide, who works full time during the week as the executive chef for three dorms at Michigan State University, never intended to inspire that kind of following.

“It never really was intended to be what it is right now," he said.

Who knew a janky barbecue spot was just what Charlotte needed?

A homemade smoker leads to a business

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The Whistlepig BBQ photographed on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte.(Photo11: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

The Whistlepig BBQ was named after a smoker.

Strotheide built it himself out of a 275-gallon oil drum be bought on Craigslist three years ago. He wanted to use it to start a small street vending business, but Charlotte's ordinance doesn't allow food trucks to set up shop downtown.

The vacant gas station at 501 N. Cochran Ave. seemed like the next best thing.

It had been “mothballed,” Strotheide said, but had real potential, and the building’s owner had agreed to lease it to him for $100 a month.

“It was like, ‘Here, have this free chance,” Strotheide said.

There was one condition. If the business venture went well, Strotheide had to buy the property.

The Whistlepig BBQ opened during Charlotte's Frontier Days festival in September of 2016, and sold out of food quickly both days it was open.

The homemade smoker lasted until August of last year. It was replaced with a 1,800-pound smoker that cooks a couple hundred pounds of meat at a time. In the two years since Whistlepig's doors opened, Strotheide and his wife, Melissa, have added equipment, including an oven, fryer and outdoor refrigerator, and developed an ever-changing menu.

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The Whistlepig BBQ owner Jason Strotheide adds sauce to a chicken for a customer while manning the grill on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte.(Photo11: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

Standards include ribs, pulled pork and brisket, and it often includes smoked chicken and chicken wings. No week's lineup is the same, but there are nonetheless fan favorites, like the corn cakes, jambalaya, mac and cheese and Whistlepig’s “smoke bombs,” which are smoked jalapenos stuffed with smoked chorizo sausage and garlic cream cheese, battered with buttermilk and corn meal, deep fried and served with a cilantro cream sauce.

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Jason Strotheide, left, and his daughter Jillian prepare food for customers at The Whistlepig BBQ on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte.(Photo11: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

Phil Hobson, a pastor at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Charlotte, is no stranger to good barbecue. Before moving to Michigan, he lived in Tennessee and Texas, but Hobson said Whistlepig's brisket sandwiches are the best he's ever had.

He stops at the restaurant at least once a week and said barbecue fans need to overlook its modest appearance, because the food is "amazing."

"It's not hole-in-the-wall barbecue place food," he said. "It's high quality, made with the best stuff, and, if you don't get there fast enough, it'll be gone."

A simple operation, a growing fan base

The Whistlepig BBQ prepares up to 800 pounds of meat a weekend and sells out a few hours before closing every Friday and Saturday.

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Smoked jalapeo peppers wait to get prep for a surprise dish at The Whistlepig BBQ on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte.(Photo11: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

The business model of “it’s here until it’s gone” is how many Southern barbecue joints operate, Strotheide said, and regular customers have become accustomed to it.

The eatery closes a few weekends each season for family vacations. Regular customers know to watch its Facebook page for closures and weekly menu changes

There are upsides to operating simply, Melissa Strotheide said.

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The Whistlepig BBQ owner Jason Strotheide mans the grill on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte.(Photo11: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

“Everything’s fresh every weekend," she said, and it allows them to give customers "good food at a reasonable price and fast."

Whistlepig customers can dine there at wooden picnic tables that Jason built, but the business is set up for carry out.

On any given weekend during their season, Jason, Melissa and their two children, Tony, 18, and Jillian, 13, are working there together, along with Jason’s mother Robbin Beard, and a few extended family members.

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Melissa Strotheide delivers food to a customer at The Whistlepig BBQ on Friday, June 1, 2018, in Charlotte.(Photo11: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

Beard said customers don't usually have to wait for their food, but when they do they never seem to mind.

“I’ve seen people, when he’s cooking ribs and they’re not ready, they’ll sit on that bench for a half hour saying ‘They’re worth the wait.’"

Jason said they've built the side business incrementally.

"Instead of going crazy and throwing a bunch of time and resources at it, we just have kind of just chipped away at the stone a little bit," he said.

Melissa said they couldn’t have done it any other way.

“It’s been a good gradual increase," she said. “This right now, this is good."

And it's a surprise to Jason, who said he never had a grand plan for it when it opened, though now he might.

“I want to retire from the university and do this for our summer fun, then go spend the winter in the South,” he said. “We are definitely enjoying it while it’s here and happening."

Want to go?

The Whistlepig BBQ is located at 501 N. Cochran Ave. in Charlotte. It's open most Friday and Saturdays, from April through October, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. or until food sells out. Customers can view the weekly menus on its Facebook page at "The Whistlepig BBQ."